I wanted to know how soft her lips were, what she tasted like. Unfortunately, so did my brother: Ayden, the better half of our twin duo, compassionate and caring, rarely raising his voice or getting angry with me, no matter how much of a dick I was. So when he came home after meeting Fallon for the first time and told me it was love at first sight, I felt like I died inside. I tried to dissuade him with all the reasons I was constantly using to remind myself I shouldn’t feel what I felt: she was Marissa Bane’s daughter; her mother killed our parents.
I wanted to hate her. If I was being honest, the moment I found out who she really was I wished Fallon dead. But with every moment I spent around her—seeing Blair activate her curse, watching her cry out in pain, seeing how kind she was, how hard she tried to make me laugh, how self-conscious shewas about people knowing who her mother was and judging her for it—my anger transformed to something else.
I wanted to protect her. I wanted to heal her. I wanted to be the one to give her everything that had been denied to her because of her curse.
Watching Ayden date the girl I was falling in love with was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. But it was worth it to me if they were both happy. I didn’t want them to break up, but I felt like the relationship would run its course. After all, how long could Ayden last without touching the girl he was dating? How long would Fallon be able to handle it? How long would they both last knowing I was the one who could touch her?
On the night of the dance, when Ayden came home and told me he couldn’t do it anymore, I knew he had figured it out—he knew I had fallen for Fallon too.
“Go be the one who makes her happy. For both of us,”he’d said.
Typical selfless Ayden. But I hadn’t hesitated. I couldn’t. She drove me crazy, in both good and bad ways, and all I wanted to do was finally kiss her, hold her, feel her body relax into mine like it’d found its missing other half.
I knew being with Fallon would be complicated, maybe even dangerous at times, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t her fault that her psychotic mother was trying to start a war and kill everyone.
A hard slap rang out across my face, and I gasped, my eyes snapping open.
The Grim.
The Grim?
“Careful, boy. You can get lost in your thoughts down here,” the Grim said, eying me with concern.
Holy Fae!
Everything came back to me in a rush. Marissa had killed me. I had then woken up here with Fallon standing over my body with Master Healer marks on her hands.
I bolted into a standing position, pulling up my shirt to look at the spot where Marissa had embedded the axe into my chest. There was a smooth, pink puckered scar and the wild beat of my thumping heart. Something felt off, different from the time I had been down here with Fallon’s father.
I reached up and grabbed my warm face, pulling at my skin. “I’m physically here?” I asked, my stomach turning sour.
He nodded casually. “Your girlfriend messed up. I told her I’d keep you alive until she could figure out how to transport you back topside.”
Oh, Fallon.
How? How had she pulled my soulandbody to the Realm of Eternity?
“All right. Thanks, I guess,” I told him. Slightly awkward to be raised from the dead and yet still be in the place where the dead were laid to rest.
The Grim winced a little. “Don’t thank me yet. I had to follow protocol and report you to the Realm of Rebirth. Only thing I could think of to keep you here. Otherwise, you’d start to wither away and die.”
Wither away!
Wait, he said the Realm of Rebirth?
I choked on a laugh. The Realm of Rebirth was for Nightlings and whatever dark magic they did to reanimate their bodies, and…
Shock ripped through me. The only reason I would be going to the Realm of Rebirth was if I had the same type of magic that Fallon had. Slowly raising my arms, I stared at the smooth, tan skin on the top of my hands.
No marks.
No healer marks. No master marks. No Maven marks.
Fallon.
She… We…
The Grim nodded. “She switched powers with you to save your life. You’re House of Ash and Shadow now for all intents and purposes.”
